Time for secured jobs

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 24: Government sector jobs have become more attractive.

“There has been a tremendous increase in the number of applications at the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) in the last three years,” said SSC chairman N.K. Raghupathy.

“Employees in IT majors such as Infosys, Wipro, Accenture and others are turning to government jobs. The candidates are getting absorbed in various positions in Auditor General’s office, CBI and customs,” he said.

The SSC makes recruitments for Group B non-gazetted and Group C non-technical posts to various government departments.

The eastern regional office at Calcutta has its jurisdiction over states of Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim.

“While job security is one major factor, the revised pay structure after implementation of the sixth central Pay Commission recommendations is also pulling candidates like never before,” said Raghupathy.

The increase in applications can also be attributed to the revamped examination system introduced by the commission in 2010. Unlike earlier, the exams now carry objective type questions, said the official.

Although, the number of applicants in Odisha have jumped from 30,680 in 2009-10 to 1,40,423 in 2011-12, the government has shown “poor response’ in appointing the candidates selected by the recruiting agency, said an official.

While only 196 candidates of the total 30,680 candidates were appointed in 2010, 300 out of 64,461 candidates were appointed in 2011. Only 1,211 candidates of the 1,40,423 have been recommended for appointment by the government this year, the SSC data revealed.

“The Odisha government has been showing no interest in spreading information about the SSC. This is the reason that the number of applicants is fewer,” said the chairman.

The state has not responded to its request to set up a nodal agency in Odisha.

“Despite several attempts in the past two years, the Odisha chief secretary cannot afford time to meet our team,” said Raghupathy.